one of my rants vs fair play merchandising

Not too long ago I purchased a pair of Ridgid lithium ion drills and diligently filled in the lifetime warranty and submitted same to the offices in the U.S.Today I recieved via my e-mail a 20% off offer from Ridgid as follows:

They took my money from a Canadian Home Depot, they sent my warranty acknowledgement ,then promptly refused to give me the same treatment as all of their other customers because, apparently, I live in Canada!I’m a wee bit peeved , not at the loss of the 20% discount as much as the arrogant merchandising attitude that favors one customer over anothersimply at their whim. It would probably be in their best interest if they did not e-mail me to tell me I don’t rate the offer.Something to think about next time you shop for tools guys and girls.p.s. I would have contacted them directly but like most corportions they provide no contact for feedback.

Why they ever came up with the bright idea that makes a corporation equivalent to a person in many legal situations is beyond me. They sure as heck don’t act like people should. And when our representatives sit down with the representative of a corporation the corporation seems to get treated a whole lots better than a person who walks in off the street even if the person is a constituent and the corporation may not be.

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

Bob is there anyway you can send it to a lumberjock in the US, at least someone could benefit from the discount. I just had poor business dealings with them as well. Now I’ve bought 2 rigid products my first and last.

In my post I was merely pointing out that many big corporations don’t really appear to care that much about people. It’s a money thing. It’s ironic that being that way can sometimes cost them a customer and therefore lose them some money.

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

In this age of computers knowing all sorts of things about me, I’m constantly amazed at how little of that information marketers take advantage of.

For instance: Within a month of my buying a car, I was flooded by the dealership with email about sales on cars. Uh, guys, even though you don’t know anything about my car buying habits (once every 15 years, if I really need to), what are the chances I want a new car within a month after buying my old one? How about a year or two?

I had a good rant on this sometime last year, but that fire’s all diminished to vague acceptance at this point, but if you’ve got a computerized system and are trying to keep track of customers, you should:

Track my purchasing, and send me deals on things I haven’t bought from you yet, rather than things I’ve just bought from you.

Look at my purchasing history on consumables. After two or three times you should know when to remind me that you’re the vendor I bought from last time.

If you want to do follow-up on products, ask me how it’s doing a year or two later, not (just) a week or two later. And ask me questions relevant to its use; I’ve no objection to doing consumer surveys, but most of ‘em are just stupid.

As Bob points out, even if you want to make it hard for me to use the coupon, ie: you’re just using it as branding or a reminder to seem nice, don’t make it impossible for me to use it.

Bob – I am NOT a Home Depot fan. However, this may not be their fault. Laws differ from Country to Country, and State to State about what a retailer can offer. Maybe there are rules and regulations in Canada that make it impossible or impractical to offer the discount in-store. If you notice, the discount is good on-line. I’d go to the store, choose my tool and order it online at 20% off…..... good luck.

David, that could be the case but then why send me the offer and then send me to the Website?They had no problem taking my money and registering my product for warranty?I know of no law or ruling anywhere in Canada that would prevent a manufacturer from offering a refund or rebate.I just noticed today on another Canadian WW form that HD is being mentioned as being unreasonably slow in dealing with offers that they have presented to customersKnowing what I know now I would have made a different product choice.I am passing this info along in hopes it helps someone else.

It states that you can use your discount on their website if it is read carefully. However, I feel that is not good enough. Rigid and Home Depot both are major corporations that sell all over the world. They should be able to honor that discount anywhere, in ANY Home Depot on ANY Rigid tool. That’s my opinion anyway. I agree with Bob. They had no problem taking his money from a Canadian store or sending this discount offer to a Canadian address. This amounts to more corporate BS.

From my perspective , when they practice this “selective customer preference” they preclude me having an altenate choice like my friends in the U.S. have. We have no Lowes, no Maynards etc. It’s primarliy Home Depot or Rona Revy who more or less do whatever they please at the moment.My small-medium size dealers have a great deal of problems first getting reasonalbe inventories of branded products and getting enough support in their operations to offer the discounts that the borgs do when they fell threatened.Somehow I have to find a product line that is progressive ,well built, and readily availalbe from sources other than these borgs.As nobody services anything perhaps the internet is a more logical source for my stuff.